Hammond Music

There are a great many beat programs out there. Some have been established for many years and applied in professional recordings. Others are recent and let you learn and make your personalised music online without needing to install anything.

Before you check out any beat programs first think about how you learn best and how you can progress to your goal as easily and rapidly as possible.

What type of learner are you? Do you learn well from studying books and manuals? Are you more visual and pick things up from following video recordings? Do you learn better from simply getting in there and doing it?

How much time, exertion and expense can you put into becoming a proficient beat maker?

Your options are reasonably wide and vary from intricate high end music production packages to free open source programs, there are also web browser based beat programs at varying costs.

Free vs. Paid

Everyone wants something for nothing and free is always nice – but like anything that’s free there’s always a catch. With music production computer software the free ones come in 2 flavours – time restricted demonstration versions of paid products or open source and shareware.

If you are a skilled computer user and resourceful when it comes to finding information the open source shareware route might just be for you. You’ll need to be able to install and teach yourself the software – and if it goes wrong there’s no support. Also – and this is the worst downfall with free beat programs – you don’t get any samples to use.

The benefits of paid products are that the good ones will include good (video) training, royalty-free samples you can use to create tracks that you can sell commercially, good support and if you’re fortunate a money back guarantee.

Ultimately your journey from beginner to seasoned beat maker can be drawn-out or compact.

So how much is good value?

Now depending on what level of dedication you’re prepared to put in you can spend a lot or a little at the offset of your journey. High end software programs cost hundreds of dollars whereas some starter software packages cost fewer than 30 bucks.

What’s right for your budget and time depends on your personalized situation. A starter package will get you up and functioning quick but might lack some of the more subtle and complex characteristics of pro standard beat programs. High end bundles take longer to learn, are complicated to install but you’re setting a solid cornerstone.

Only you can decide what will best accommodate your specific needs. Remember your aim of learning how to make beats rapidly and easily and keep that in mind when looking at beat programs. Ask yourself questions like “do I require these extra features?” and “am I just paying extra for the brand here?” Keep your mind on your goal and you’ll be listening to your own tracks on the radio and in the clubs in no time.

Peter Webber reviews beat making software software on his dot-funk site which is targeted at helping the beginner musician develop the necessary skills  to make and produce their own music using a computer and the internet.

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